jwillis35

YEAH Phantom! This is nice. Those opening hits sound like they could come from some James Bond movie. The staging is very cool.

Excellent first shows by Troopers and Colts. I like them both. I think Colts have a more difficult visual package. Both horn books are solid but I would give Colts a lead for now. Soloists were great for both corps. That trumpet soloist for Troopers was insanely good. Same with Colts trumpet and euphonium duet. Nice playing. Colts brass projects a little better, though sloppy at times with plenty of stick-outs, but that is typical for early season. Both percussion sections were excellent but I think Troopers book works better with the music and Colts gets a little rough with the brass book. Both will be adjusted as needed. I am not a good judge of guard. In GE I would have Colts up a little since I think they stage their big moments a little better with the music. Troopers need to focus their big impacts a bit more and eventually I think they will bring more volume. So for now I would have Colts up on Troopers, but in the end both shows are potential top 12 shows (to be fair to the others until I see them). And both are fun. Troopers definitely have the best prop. I am not sure what to make of the Colts props just yet but musically and visually I enjoyed their show.

I think it's charged per every 30 day regardless of when you join but I may be wrong. In fairness you would likely pay $60 or more to see 2 shows live. But of course I realize that would be more fun.

You can tell it is hazy but the field looks great and the view seems to be pretty good on Flo.

Don't take offense to what some others are saying. Your kid is obviously talented and has serious motivation if they are out marching drum corps. Madison is very talented this year. How the show gets judged? Who knows, but the kids are talented and when this thing cleans I think people will enjoy the show. Some will absolutely LOVE it.

I completely agree with you here. The design team has to know the level of experience and design to that and also have a plan for teaching and making sure the corps is prepared for the start of the season. Now in fairness, is this show too hard for Madison. I don't think so. I think other factors played into the delay, like weather, smoke from the wildfires, no indoor facility and perhaps other issues. Time will tell if this show is too much but I think people will be pleasantly surprised and entertained by their brass and percussion this summer. I can remember many corps back in the day not having a full show ready to go. SCV was classic for this. Garfield on many occasions did not have their full closer done early season, not to mention all the kids that were falling down or getting tripped over while performing their shows. Blue Devils were very rusty with an incomplete show at the onset of 2019. Some people were calling for them to place 6th. Those predictions did not bode well. These things have happened in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and they still sometimes happen today. There can be all kinds of reasons for it. But to be fair to your point I have seen corps come out dirty with incomplete shows and in some cases it was due to pushing too much demand at the members which ultimately caused some of those groups to crash and burnout. Trying to keep up with the Jones' is a dangerous thing in DCI or Band. Where this becomes even more relevant today is that in a 6 week season there is not much time to water the book (music or visual) and still have time to clean for an optimum performance come Finals week. So yes, the design teams and staff have to be careful and really know what they are doing.

I see what you are trying to say but I would not refer to kids, any kid, as being lower quality. All kids who aspire to march drum corps are welcome and should be encouraged. And yes, not every kid is as talented as others as a musician, dancer, twirler, drummer, or marcher. Yes, Madison may not have the talent they once had but that is all the more reason for them to work slower, pace better, etc. I watched the show again today while at work and I really think they will be quite good when this is cleaned. And in terms of talent let me tell you they have a few trombone players who are super talented. They have got some serious chops in the trumpet line. The soloists just need time to contour those lines better, and the entire section just needs more reps and confidence in their music. Tubas sound good to me (15 of them). I agree with many on here that they will likely be a late bloomer. Nothing wrong with that. I hope they get hot about 2 weeks before Finals. If we are comparing them to the top 4 corps then yes they are not in that league. Then again most of the other corps are not either. If there goal is to get back to being a top 7 drum corps then there is no doubt they will have some growing pains as they find their voice, their style, and recruit the talent for that. But on a positive side I think that some of these kids marching this year may ultimately help them get there. Trust me, they have plenty of talent. Much more than they had last year judging from my ears (musically speaking).

I pray this isn't the summer of a ton of cancelations but the fact is we have seen a lot of crazy stuff. Wildfire smoke from the Canadian forest fires (and they do not seem to be going away). A crazy amount of tornadoes in the South and Plains states. Super hot temps in the South and Texas (and elsewhere), and massive amounts of rain at times. Certainly a mix of climate change potentially and also perhaps just one of those summers. Maybe things will calm down but the weather patterns have been crazy.

That was my thinking too. Those with asthma (or other health issues) could have a difficult time with this.

William Blake. Interesting. We'll have to see how this show flows and where they put their emphasis.

R.I.P. 😞

I want to echo what everyone else is saying about Troopers. That premiere live stream video really gave us a look at a corps that is clearly ready to go. Full show on the field. Very large corps. They must have over 90 brass. 16 tubas! Nice, and they produce a nice quality sound. I love their music book (brass, perc, pit). Well done. The prop is fantastic. Just don't smoke a certain substance and attend a show they are at because you will be staring at that prop all show and miss all the other good things going on. Where they place or how they score is not important to me, but I cannot see anyone knocking them out of top 12. Some of the corps in front of them will need to be really good.

No doubt. I think the music book is filled with all kinds of great moments. Brass and percussion will definitely grab the audience, lift them up, and give them goosebumps. The Cadets will be very very good.

I am glad to hear they are only into week 4. There is a lot of potential in their show and given weather conditions, wildfires, no indoor facility and other things I would say they have done a lot of work. Looking forward to watching this show clean and evolve over the summer. Go Madison!

I watched the video that was uploaded. There are plenty of positives to take away from this, but first I will touch on a few things that need work. The show is not complete yet. Closer is not on the field yet. Not uncommon for this time of the year. Marching needs lots of work and forms often feel cluttered Musically the opener has lots of notes and runs but no real melody is coming through. Lots of corps do this but the trick is to work it into something bigger. Guard seems to only have about half the show learned Positives I really like the music from the 2nd tune onward. The brass book is definitely on the difficult side. This is not a bad thing. As it cleans it will make more sense and they can water some things down as needed. The closer that was played in stand still could be BIG and should provide a great Madison style closer I love the use of the trombones. They are using trombone in a more musical way and not just for glissandos and other effects. They do have a few glissandos but not too much, and the one ensemble trombone feature they had was very cool. Very rhythmic with some cool bass trombone. Well done. When this cleans it will really grab you musically. I like the uniforms They have some trumpet soloists with some serious chops and they just need to clean and refine how they approach the solos. In terms of visual design they are using a lot of the field and I think as they clean they can modify the forms to be more open and less cluttered. As is always the case with early-season shows we often watch a very dirty and unfinished show and try to project where it will go. Difficult to do. We also compare what we see to previous years shows or to some of the top contenders which is a bit unfair. I think Madison will be fine this year and once things begin to clean they should be very entertaining.

Let's just celebrate all the corps for what they do that is different, similar, and in their unique ways. No corps can innovate an entire new show. It's just impossible. They march, spin, twirl, drum and work with choreography, dance and props. These are all things that have been done before. How it gets applied and used within the context of a show is where the creative design parts comes into play. The other thing that is really difficult to do is to just change up your show style completely from one year to the next. Most corps will use ideas from the previous year or two and transfer them forward to the present year, only they will contour and develop the idea to meet the new show. The Blue Devils have long done this...but so have most other drum corps. There are rare occasions when a corps really diverts from things they have previously done. The Cadets going from 1990 to 1991's ABCs of Modern American Music. Tough show. Star of Indiana going from 1992's Americana show to one of the most contemporary shows anyone has ever seen in 1993. Although they did not win (2nd) that show was a wild success by any measure even if many fans did not always care for it. Most of the time when a corps makes a drastic turn in design it's usually a tough year even if you personally loved the show. Blue Devils did this to some extent from 2007 to 2008...especially in visual design. Going from 2011 to 2012 (more so musically) was also a big diversion but was a big success even if many in the audience did not care for the show. There are other examples but the point I am making is that even with those grand diversions from what was typically done by the corps (some successful and some not) it is not an easy thing to pull off and it's usually not something you can do every year. And in all those cases you still have marchers playing, drumming, twirling, spinning, dancing, acting, and working with props (or some combination of those things). Most of the time when people are thinking or discussing innovation I tend to think Framework (and not the Cavaliers show Frameworks - though that is an awesome show). I tend to think Framework as in how all these elements are applied. There are a lot of bells and whistles in drum corps now and I think so many of the corps are trying to figure out what works for them. If Blue Devils have been innovative over the past 10 years or so I believe it's been with visual/musical transitions. I think they have spent a lot of time working on different ways to transition into and out of various scenes in the show. They have used musical transitions to help them change mood, style, key, tempo and to keep things from getting stagnant. Visually they have been working on scene changes without doing the typical "let's march some tradition drill to the next scene or set." They have stuck with it even when some changes have been very cluttered and sometimes distracting, but I think they love the experimentation. For fans that just want traditional drill for most of the show BD will likely not be your "cup of tea." No biggy. Plenty of other corps to watch.

This was beautiful.

I saw just a short clip of the 1st tune (multi cam view) and all I can say is that opener is AWESOME! When the brass line comes in they just smack you with a BIG sound. Very large brass line. Huge low-end sound from BD. I have heard some of the other music and I like it a lot. I am sure the show is not finished and I know they have to work out transitions which is a big part of what they do, but this corps will be incredibly good in another week.

Watching their premier show I really like this show top to bottom. Should be very strong. Brass already sounds remarkably strong for late June. Percussion to my ears sounds darn good. Can't wait to see them live.

Someone at the show posted this clip. If you want a better vantage point with a better look at the expanse of the field coverage check this out. The show is going to be wonderful I think. It's got that June 24 dirt and it's unfinished (only 3/5th performed) but this may give you a better idea of what they are going for. Plenty to come for sure (as with all the corps). https://youtu.be/8CqiOIxnOm8

Though I am here in Northeast Ohio, I have not seen or heard any of this show, but I will echo what another poster stated. I have heard that this is a BIG venue show. I have also heard the talent level is very high. Of course take that as you wish because Bluecoats have had a very high talent level going back many years.

So I watched that clip a few times. No closer yet, but this is one heck of a show for The Cadets. Love the music so far. Powerful stuff! Field perc is going to be really good as they clean. That bass drum feature is super nice. The pit writing is fantastic. Brass is powerful and playing a challenging book. Incredible trumpet soloist in the ballad and the tubas are cranking in a few section. Keep in mind that this is a 6-week season so the show has to clean fairly quickly and I think The Cadets have hit the right sweet spot in terms of demand vs cleaning vs entertaining. This goes for the drill too, though I know changes will be made and the closer was not performed for this show. Overall they are in a good place competitively and also should be quite entertaining this summer. Well done Cadets!

Yes, for long-time Boston Crusader fans I am thrilled for them. This is a fantastic time for Boston, their alumni and fans.

I agree. I think Boston has done a wonderful job with their music arrangements. I like how they use On The Waterfront. Brass and percussion sound really good. Should be a fun show to watch develop.

At the 10:38 min mark, just before the company front hits to close the show, this has to be the fastest company front ever. They do one at the beginning of the show, but the front at the end is just ridiculous in terms of speed and difficulty. Great ending to this show. The drill was incredibly difficult. Would have loved much much less narration because this was one killer performing ensemble.